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If you're a horror fan, Shudder is your best friend. It's where I've discovered small films that I had never heard of and would never have seen without finding them on the streaming service. Such was the case with Last Straw, written by Taylor Sardoni and directed by Alan Scott Neal. As a slasher junkie, any movie that involves the synopsis of a killer in a mask attacking a final girl has me hooked. I thoroughly enjoyed Last Straw, from its cinematography and music to its intriguing twist, but what stuck out the most was the portrayal of its final girl. Most slashers follow a very traditional paint-by-numbers approach, and their heroine isn't any different, but Last Straw's Nancy Osborne (Jessica Belkin) isn't your normal final girl. In fact, it's her tough personality that causes the reign of terror that the movie chronicles.

★★★★

‘Shocking action’

Starburst

★★★★

‘An enticing feature debut’

The Hollywood News

‘Effective home invasion horror’

Dread Central

Last Straw is a raw and relentless home invasion thriller starring Jessica Belkin (American Horror Story), Jeremy Sisto and Taylor Kowalski (Snowfall).

Set over one night in a dusty roadside diner, Last Straw follows Nancy (Belkin), a young waitress working alone on the late shift. As a series of chaotic events spiral out of control, Nancy finds herself in a fight for her life when she is terrorised by a group of masked assailants. No one is who they appear to be, and with nowhere to turn, she must do everything she can to survive the night.

Last Straw has played at genre film festivals around the world including Beyond Fest, Sitges and FrightFest Glasgow, and marks the directorial debut of Alan Scott Neal with a script by Taylor Sardoni.

Last Straw is out...

Ahead of its theatrical and digital release on September 20th, we have an exclusive preview of Last Straw just for Daily Dead readers that you can watch right now!

"Get the thrill of your life as the small-town siege horror, Last Straw, hits select theaters and digital on September 20, 2024 from Shout! Studios. Bringing the night shift to a tension-filled breaking point, this sleepy diner-set horror marks the directorial debut from Alan Scott Neal stars Jessica Belkin (American Horror Story: Hotel), Taylor Kowalski (Snowfall) and Jeremy Sisto, with a script by Taylor Sardoni and original score provided by Alan Palomo (Neon Indian).

A young waitress working the overnight shift alone at a rural, roadside diner finds herself in a fight for her life when she’s terrorized by a group of masked assailants. With no one to turn to, she will do everything she can to survive the night, even if it means striking back.

A harrowing and heart-wrenching look into one woman's devastating grief for her deceased sister—and the unthinkable thing she will do to bring her back—the short horror film Resurrektor has enjoyed a well-received run on the festival circuit over the past year. Directed by Angad Aulakh from a script Aulakh co-wrote with Taylor Sardoni, Resurrektor is now available to watch online in its entirety, and Daily Dead is thrilled (and chilled) to exclusively premiere its online debut for viewers to enjoy!

You can watch Resurrektor in its entirety below, and we also have the official press release with additional details on the short horror film!

Press Release: Following a global film festival tour, critical acclaim and top honors at Oscar, BAFTA, and Canadian Screen-qualifying film festivals, award-winning horror short Resurrektor is now available to stream online. The film received laurels and awards from festivals including New York International Shorts Film Festival,...

A night shift in a rural, roadside diner transforms into a harrowing, rage-fueled siege in Last Straw, the feature directorial debut by Alan Scott Neal. A new trailer debuted today, highlighting the intense violence that breaks out.

Shout Studios opens Last Straw in select theaters, VOD, and Digital on September 20, 2024.

In the film, “A young waitress working the overnight shift alone at a rural, roadside diner finds herself in a fight for her life when she’s terrorized by a group of masked assailants. With no one to turn to, she will do everything she can to survive the night, even if it means striking back.”

It stars Jessica Belkin (“American Horror Story”), Jeremy Sisto (“Thirteen”, May, Wrong Turn), and Taylor Kowalski (“Snowfall”), with a script by Taylor Sardoni and original score provided by Alan Palomo (Neon Indian).

“Last Straw is an outlet for revealing what horror awaits when the mask comes off and,...

The Funeral

Stars: Ahmet Rifat Sungar, Cansu Türedi, Tekin Temel | Directed by Orcun Behram

Cemal, a lonely hearse driver, has been entrusted to secretly transport the body of a murdered young woman, Zeynep, to her parents’ home at their final request. But he hears strange groans from the back of the vehicle during the journey, even though Zeynep hasn’t got a pulse. As her body comes back to life, the moment he sets eyes on her, Cemal falls in love with the undead woman. So he must constantly feed her flesh by committing his own murders, even if it means dealing with the police force’s attempts to capture a serial killer.

The Funeral start strong – our protagonist tasked with keeping a body quiet for 30 days is an intriguing premise and poses a Lot of questions about how and why but all that is left behind when the the supernatural element comes into play.

Some of the best horrors build tension to leave an audience feeling uneasy and Last Straw makes you feel uneasy in the best possible way.

Set in small-town America this marks Alan Scott Neal’s feature directorial debut with Taylor Sardoni writing. We follow Nancy (Jessica Belkin) working late in a diner who comes up against a masked gang determined to terrorise.

With its UK premier at the iconic FrightFest we sit down with Alan & Taylor to talk about the importance of keeping the story grounded, setting of small-town America and more!

You can watch the full interview below:

Last Straw screens at FrightFest on March 9th followed by a Q&a with Alan Scott Neal – tickets available here

The post Alan Scott Neal & Taylor Sardoni on horror-thriller Last Straw, avoiding genre tropes and influence of John Carpenter appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Frightfest pick The Invisible Raptor Photo: Frightfest

The line-up for this year's Glasgow Frightfest was announced this week. Opening with Josiah Allen and Indianna Bell's psychological mystery You'll Never Find Me, which sees a request for shelter on a dark and stormy night turn into something much more unsettling, it will close with Alan Scott Neal and Taylor Sardoni's tale of small town desperation, The Last Straw. Brazilian newcomer Tiago Teixeira delivers paranoid erotic in Custom and Ireland's Paul Duane explores the ethics of ethnology and the power of music in All You Need Is Death, one of the most talked-about horror films of the year to date.

Other highlights include Wake Up, an environmental slasher from Turbo Kid team Rkss, and Mike Hermosa’s joyously silly splatterfest The Invisible Raptor.

"We live in amazing times of change in the delivery of the audiovisual experience," said festival co-director Alan Jones,...

It’s not the small town diner setting that makes Last Straw – the feature directorial debut by Alan Scott Neal – stand out, though it does give it a fresh angle for its home invasion thrills. It’s the unique narrative structure that not only leans into the prevalent feeling of rage but reframes the visceral violence that ensues. While Last Straw ultimately fails to stick to the landing, the commitment to escalating the tension and violence through rage-fueled characters fascinates all the same.

Twenty-year-old Nancy (Jessica Belkin) feels trapped and fed up with her life. Stuck in a transitionary period post-high school, Nancy tries and fails to care for her dead mother’s beloved car and hangs out with her still-in-high-school best pal Tabitha (Tara Raani). Nancy also happens to be bitter about an unwanted pregnancy, which compounds her frustrations with working at her dad’s (Jeremy Sisto) diner as a waitress-turned-manager.

Last Straw

Director Alan Scott Neal and screenwriter Taylor Sardoni are in Sitges when we connect to discuss their latest film, tucked into a corner of a sunny courtyard, buzzing with festival excitement. Their film, Last Straw, is screening there and at Beyond Fest in the same week, which is a lot to digest given that neither of them has enjoyed this level of success before. The film follows a waitress, Nancy, through one terrifying night when she finds herself hounded by masked figures at the diner where she’s working alone – before flipping round to show us the same story from the point of view of one of her assailants,Jake, and managing to make us feel some sympathy for both. They developed the concept together, as Taylor explains.

“The film started a long time ago, for myself first, and then I brought Alan on after a few years,...

The first feature-length film from writer Taylor Sardoni and director Alan Scott Neal, Last Straw answers a seemingly simple, if rarely asked, question: When is a home-invasion thriller not a home-invasion thriller? The answer is just as simple, if also as rarely asked: When it’s not a home-invasion thriller, but a diner-invasion thriller. Swapping out a typical suburban home with a middle-of-nowhere diner open 24 hours automatically adds a level of novelty and originality to an otherwise tired, often repetitive, sub-genre. Whether that’ novelty and originality, however, qualifies as sufficient to recommend the Last Straw is another question altogether. Last Straw opens on a close-up of a not quite old-school jukebox. It’s filled with CDs, not vinyl, but the close-up adds an ominous note, especially...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

This will be her "last straw." An early teaser trailer has debuted for an indie horror film titled Last Straw, which is premiering at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival coming up in October. It's also set to screen at Beyond Fest in LA as well. Last Straw marks the directorial debut of Alan Scott Neal with a script by Taylor Sardoni, described as "a raw & relentless twist on the home-invasion thriller." Here's the full synopsis: A young waitress, working the night shift all by herself at a rural diner on the side of a back road, will wind up forced to back after being attacked by a group of masked assailants. Completely alone in the face of danger, she will have to confront them all, resorting to violence if necessary, in order to survive. She fights for her life over the course of one, long night. Starring Jessica Belkin as the waitress,...

Alan Scott Neal's debut horror thriller Last Straw will have its world premiere at Sitges laster this month, followed by the North American premiere at Beyond Fest. The frist teaser has just been sent out. Check it out down below.    Part of me wishes that the Last Straw is literally the last plastic straw in the joint and Nancy uses it in the final kill, driving it into an eye of her assailant. Then she says, "Now, we only have paper straws. Bitch!".   We will see how close I was once we have a chance to check it out.    Last Straw marks the directorial debut of Alan Scott Neal with a script by Taylor Sardoni, a raw & relentless twist on the...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Bloody Disgusting has an exclusive look at the teaser trailer for horror thriller Last Straw, which will world premiere at Sitges before making its way to Beyond Fest next month.

Last Straw is an homage to the pressure cooker genre films of yesteryear and is said to be “a raw and relentless twist on the home-invasion thriller that subverts expectations at every turn.”

The story revolves around a young waitress working the late shift alone at a rural roadside diner. Her life takes a terrifying turn when she becomes the target of a group of masked assailants. As the night unfolds she must muster all her strength to survive.

“Last Straw is an outlet for revealing what horror awaits when the mask comes off and, at the same time, an attempt to understand what causes some people to turn towards violence,” says director Alan Scott Neal, making his feature directorial debut.

Bloody Disgusting has a first image from the horror thriller Last Straw, which will world premiere at the Sitges Film Festival before making its way to Beyond Fest next month. Variety reports Blue Finch Films has boarded worldwide sales.

Written by Taylor Sardoni, Last Straw pays homage to the pressure cooker genre films of the past and aims to present a raw and unrelenting twist on the home-invasion thriller.

“The story revolves around a young waitress working the late shift alone at a rural roadside diner. Her life takes a terrifying turn when she becomes the target of a group of masked assailants. As the night unfolds she must muster all her strength to survive.”

This film marks the directorial debut of Alan Scott Neal and the cast includes Jessica Belkin (“American Horror Story”), Jeremy Sisto and Taylor Kowalski (“Snowfall”).

The original score is composed by Alan Palomo of Neon...

Blue Finch Films has boarded worldwide sales on horror-thriller, “Last Straw,” set to have its world premiere at the Sitges Film Festival before making its way to Beyond Fest next month.

Written by Taylor Sardoni, “Last Straw” pays homage to the pressure cooker genre films of the past and aims to present a raw and unrelenting twist on the home-invasion thriller. The story revolves around a young waitress working the late shift alone at a rural roadside diner. Her life takes a terrifying turn when she becomes the target of a group of masked assailants. As the night unfolds she must muster all her strength to survive.

This film marks the directorial debut of Alan Scott Neal and the cast includes Jessica Belkin (“American Horror Story”), Jeremy Sisto (“Thirteen”) and Taylor Kowalski (“Snowfall”). The original score is composed by Alan Palomo of Neon Indian and the cinematography is by Andrey Nikolaev.